Leopold Cafe

It was a pretty quiet, although very pleasant first full day in Mumbai. Like I said, I woke up at 8:00 a.m. and did manage to stay up all day, so that should keep me on schedule tomorrow - and tonight I should sleep pretty well. It should be a tougher challenge for my dad and especially Annie (she didn't wake up until 4:25 p.m.). I hung around and caught up with some reading and finally made arrangements for my hotel in Brussels. Around 3:30 our great friend John showed up and we had a lovely chat, getting caught up about his various hobs (he's essentially running two campuses) and family (his great wife, Volga - who may be the best cook in the world, and his kids Will and Jeff). All the time he was consistently taking calls on his mobile, and apparently solving most of the problems of the world with a few words and a shrug - I kept especting him to say a few words about Kashmir and suddenly there would be no more troubles between India and Pakistan. Eventually dad and Annie made their way down and we went for a ride in the Mumbai rain to set our sense of direction. Along the way we caught up with Volga, who was out shopping. John dropped us off at the cool Leopold Cafe, which is a center for western ex-pats in Mumbai (and fit in perfectly with my long-standing desire to be an ex-pat, especially in a Sumerset Maugham novel). It was one of the locations that was focused by the same terrorists who attacked the Taj Hotel (which is right down the street) last year. They left the bullet holes unrepaired as a sign of defiance/remembrance, but the place was packed. They have a great Indian/western/Chinese menu - and these bizarre yards of beer, which are three foot high circular glass containers which they leave on the table (sort of an extended version of the container that held the marinating donkey penis in China from last summer - and the fact that I can make that statement demonstrates what an odd life I lead). We ended up the evening sitting on the front porch of our hotel, drinking coffee and eating ice cream. A pretty blissful evening, with the exception of some persistent beggars who followed us around; it's one of the things that I really like much more about the Middle East than India - as much as I love India, and I do, the begging can wear on you.